Application of an enhanced discrete element method to oil and gas drilling processes

Abstract

The authors present results on the use of the discrete element method (DEM) for the simulation of drilling processes typical in the oil and gas exploration industry. The numerical method uses advanced DEM techniques using a local definition of the DEM parameters and combined FEM-DEM procedures.This paper presents a step by step procedure to build a DEM model for analysis of the soil region coupled to a FEM model for discretizing the drilling tool that reproduces the drilling mechanics of a particular drill bit. A parameter study has been performed to determine the model parameters in order to maintain accurate solutions with reduced computational cost.

Pulse fracture simulation in shale rock reservoirs: DEM and FEM–DEM approaches

“…The normal contact forces between discrete elements are calculated by integrating the stiffness matrix of the linear triangle along its sides. Each side connects the discrete particles as shown in Figure 16 [27]. The mechanical problem in the crack-free region is solved using the standard FEM.…”

“…The discrete element method (DEM) is an alternative and efficient numerical technique to reproduce multifracture situations in a solid. The simulation of the cracking response of concrete and geomaterials have been extensively treated in the last years using the DEM [5,8,9,13,14,17,18,20,23,24,26,27], or a combination of DEM and FEM procedures [11,18,19,24,25,28].…”

A statistical DEM approach for modelling heterogeneous brittle materials

“…Ever since its formulation, the BPM has been a widely popular tool for investigating problems involving brittle fracture. Examples where the BPM has been applied to industrial processes can be found for rock indentation [15,58], drilling of soil [48] and rock [45] and rock cutting [16,39]. The BPM has also been proven to be a suitable framework for virtually reproduce the fracture process of brittle materials for common experimental methods, such as the uniaxial compression test of concrete [49] and granite [55] as well as the Brazilian disc test of transversely isotropic rock [53].…”